Formal Language
Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control radically rewrote a website addressing false claims linking vaccines to autism. Previously, the CDC had correctly stated that a strong scientific consensus has concluded that vaccines are not associated with autism. The website now falsely claims that this statement is “not evidence-based” and that “studies supporting a link between vaccines and autism have been ignored by health authorities”. These are lies.
Vaccines are important for protecting the public from dangerous infectious diseases. Claiming that vaccines cause autism discourages parents from vaccinating their children, resulting in the unnecessary spread of infectious diseases and the resurgence of illnesses that have long been controlled by the widespread adoption of vaccines. Declining vaccination rates stemming from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s consistent lies since taking office endanger disabled and otherwise medically vulnerable people. The lie that vaccine components cause autism has led to scientifically dubious “treatments” that have harmed and killed autistic people for years.
The science is clear. As the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, “Since 1998, independent researchers across seven countries have conducted more than 40 high-quality studies involving over 5.6 million people. The conclusion is clear and unambiguous: There’s no link between vaccines and autism.”
The CDC under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Acting CDC director Jim O’Neill has proven that it can no longer be trusted to provide truthful information about health to the American public. We deserve public health information we can trust to help us make important health care decisions for ourselves and with our loved ones. The only way to begin to rebuild the trust that HHS has broken is to remove Secretary Kennedy and Acting Director O’Neill from office immediately.
While we fight for the CDC to return to a practice of sharing factual public health information, we encourage everyone in our community to instead rely on information from the American Academy of Pediatrics and their HealthyChildren.org resource, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Vaccine Education Center, immunize.org, and the American Public Health Association. ASAN will continue to provide information to our community from trustworthy sources.
Plain Language
Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) changed a page on their website. The page was about autism. Some people say that vaccines cause autism, but this is not true. The CDC’s web page used to be about how vaccines do not cause autism. Yesterday, they changed it. Now, the web page says that vaccines might cause autism. It says that there is some proof that vaccines might cause autism. It says that people in charge of public health have been ignoring this proof. These are lies.
Vaccines are really important. Vaccines protect everyone from dangerous diseases. When the government says that vaccines might cause autism, it makes people scared. Parents who are scared about vaccines might not give vaccines to their children. When fewer children have their vaccines, more people get dangerous diseases. We have already seen that since HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. started working in the government, fewer parents are giving their children vaccines.
When people say vaccines cause autism, it scares parents of autistic kids. Those parents might make bad decisions. They might get fake autism “treatments” for their kids. These treatments are dangerous. They can hurt or kill people.
Science has already shown over and over again that vaccines do not cause autism. The American Academy of Pediatrics, a group of doctors who treat children, said this on their website. They said: “Since 1998, independent researchers across seven countries have conducted more than 40 high-quality studies involving over 5.6 million people. The conclusion is clear… There’s no link between vaccines and autism.”
Americans cannot trust the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) anymore. We cannot trust the people in charge of the CDC: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Acting CDC director Jim O’Neill. We cannot trust that they will tell us the truth about health and safety. This makes it harder for all of us to make health care decisions for ourselves and our loved ones.
The CDC has broken our trust. The only way to fix it is to fire Secretary Kennedy and Acting Director O’Neill from their jobs. If the President won’t do that, Congress should.
ASAN will keep fighting to make the CDC go back to telling Americans the truth. In the meantime, here are some places you can get true health information:
- The American Academy of Pediatrics and their HealthyChildren.org resource
- The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Vaccine Education Center
- Immunize.org
- The American Public Health Association.
ASAN will keep telling our community the truth. We will back up what we say with sources we can trust.